The New York Times: ‘Swept Up By FEMA’: Complicated Medical Supply System Sows Confusion
In Massachusetts, state leaders said they had confirmed a vast order of personal protective equipment for their health workers; then the Trump administration took control of the shipments. In Kentucky, the head of a hospital system told members of Congress that his broker had pulled out of an agreement to deliver four shipments of desperately needed medical gear after the supplies were commandeered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado thought his state had secured 500 ventilators before they were “swept up by FEMA.” (Kanno-Youngs and Nicas, 4/6)

CNN: States Desperate For Medical Supplies Turn To Each Other For Help
As some parts of the country get closer to reaching the peak of coronavirus cases in the weeks ahead and in the midst of widespread complaints of the federal government's response, governors are stepping in to loan resources and move critical supplies directly to the hot spots. Several states that are not currently facing the same level of coronavirus outbreaks as New York, Michigan and Louisiana have started lending ventilators to help ease the strain the crisis has put on medical workers and hospitals facing a lack of supplies and medical equipment. States sharing ventilators may be essential as there are only about 9,500 ventilators left in the Strategic National Stockpile, and by the week of April 13 only an estimated 3,200 more will have been acquired, according to the House Oversight Committee after a telephone briefing by Federal Emergency Management Agency officials. (Zaslav, Judd and Diaz, 4/6)

ProPublica: How New York City’s Emergency Ventilator Stockpile Ended Up On The Auction Block
In July 2006, with an aggressive and novel strain of the flu circulating in Asia and the Middle East, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a sweeping pandemic preparedness plan. Using computer models to calculate how a disease could spread rapidly through the city’s five boroughs, experts concluded New York needed a substantial stockpile of both masks and ventilators. If the city confronted a pandemic on the scale of the 1918 Spanish flu, the experts found, it would face a “projected shortfall of between 2,036 and 9,454 ventilators.” ... In the end, the alarming predictions failed to spur action. (Elliott, Waldman and Kaplan, 4/6)

NBC News: Trump's Use Of Medical Stockpile Veers From Past Administrations, Leaving States In The Lurch
President Donald Trump is telling state governors battling the coronavirus to get ventilators and protective gear on their own, but officials who helped build the national stockpile say the trove of medical material was designed for this moment. Triggering confusion and competition among state governments, Trump has insisted that the more than $7 billion stockpile of medical supplies is not there simply to be deployed to states, but also for the federal government to use, adding states should have had their own reserves. (Pettypiece, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Pandemic Spurs Stanford Researchers To Create Hospital Resource Calculator
Responding to the national surge in Covid-19 patients at hospitals, researchers at Stanford University have created online calculators to help policy makers and hospital administrators everywhere better allocate their staff and equipment. Americans were told over the weekend that the worst days are ahead. Confirmed infections in the U.S. stood at more than 357,000 Monday, with the death toll at 10,524, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. (McCormick, 4/7)

NPR: U.S. Hospitals Surveyed Plea For More Federal Coordination Of Supplies
Hospitals are trying to make their own disinfectant from in-house chemicals, running low on toilet paper and food, and trying to source face masks from nail salons. Those are some of the findings from a snapshot survey of how America's hospitals are handling the coronavirus crisis. The survey was done over five days, from March 23-27, by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General. Ann Maxwell, who oversaw the report as assistant inspector general for evaluation and inspections, says it's "the first objective, independent, national look at how hospitals are addressing the COVID-19 response." (Simmons-Duffin, 4/6)

ABC News: More Than 300 US Hospitals Warn Of Supply Shortages In Coronavirus Fight, Watchdog Says
Hospitals fighting the coronavirus outbreak in the United States aren't just worried about having sufficient protective masks and ventilators, they're also worried about having enough toilet paper, healthy staff, and money to pay their bills in the coming weeks of the health crisis. That's according to a new report from the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services, the nonpartisan watchdog office for the agency leading the nation's coronavirus response. (Siegel and Flaherty, 4/6)

NPR: Hospitals Face Financial Squeeze As They Prep For Coronavirus
As many cities and regions of the country brace for a surge of coronavirus patients over the next few weeks, hospitals are scrambling to get ready. The increase in costs to convert beds, buy equipment and increase staffing time in order to care for critically ill COVID-19 patients is adding up at a time when revenues are down. And the resources they have to turn to may vary, depending on the demographics of the patients they serve. (Neighmond, 4/6)

Kaiser Health News: Nursing Homes Have Thousands Of Ventilators That Hospitals Desperately Need
As the number of COVID-19 patients climbs and health officials hunt for ventilators to treat them, nursing homes across the United States have a cache ― about 8,200 of the lifesaving machines, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Most of the machines are in use, often by people who’ve suffered a brain injury or stroke. Some of those residents are in a vegetative state and have remained on a ventilator for years. (Faryon, 4/7)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Watchdog: Hospitals Need More Help To Fight COVID-19
Health systems are struggling with testing and caring for COVID-19 patients and keeping their staff safe, according to a new report from HHS' Office of Inspector General. In the first nationwide assessment of how hospitals are coping with the pandemic, the agency found that hospitals are grappling with serious COVID-19 testing supply shortages and long wait times for test results. They're also dealing with shortages of personal protective equipment, ventilators, medical gas, toilet paper, linens, food and other essential supplies. (Brady, 4/6)

Politico: Trump Blasts HHS Watchdog For Report On Hospital Shortages
"It's just wrong," Trump said during a briefing of the White House coronavirus task force, without providing evidence detailing what was incorrect. "It still could be her opinion. When was she appointed? Do me a favor and let me know. Let me know now. I have to know," the president said in response to a question about the findings. Trump's comments were directed at Principal Deputy Inspector General Christi Grimm and prompted by a report based on interviews with administrators from 324 hospitals and health systems between March 23 to March 27. (Ehley and Ollstein, 4/6)

The Hill: Trump Says IG Report Finding Hospital Shortages Is 'Just Wrong' 
He implied that he is mistrustful of inspectors general more broadly. He recently fired the inspector general of the intelligence community, which has drawn outrage from Democrats."Did I ear the word inspector general?" Trump said in response to the reporter's question about the findings. "It's just wrong," Trump said of the report. (Sullivan, 4/6)

CNN: Fact Check: Trump Disputes HHS IG Report, Repeats Several Other False Claims At Monday's Coronavirus Briefing 
President Donald Trump made yet another series of false and misleading claims at his Monday coronavirus briefing, during which he repeatedly criticized reporters and frequently departed from his prepared text. Trump repeated false claims about coronavirus testing and about the Obama administration's response to the H1N1 pandemic, baselessly dismissed a new report about hospital shortages of critical supplies, and played down early problems with a new small business lending program. He also repeated some of his old false claims about trade with China. (Subramaniam, Dale, Fox, Alvarez and Lybrand, 4/6)

The New York Times: Trade Adviser Warned White House In January Of Risks Of A Pandemic
A top White House adviser starkly warned Trump administration officials in late January that the coronavirus crisis could cost the United States trillions of dollars and put millions of Americans at risk of illness or death. The warning, written in a memo by Peter Navarro, President Trump’s trade adviser, is the highest-level alert known to have circulated inside the West Wing as the administration was taking its first substantive steps to confront a crisis that had already consumed China’s leaders and would go on to upend life in Europe and the United States. (Haberman, 4/6)

The Hill: Trump Confronts Most Difficult Week Yet In Coronavirus Battle
President Trump and his administration are confronting the most difficult week yet of the novel coronavirus outbreak as cases are expected to approach peak levels in some of the hardest-hit areas of the country. The administration is facing growing pressure to get medical supplies to states where hospitals fear shortages, and critics say a leadership vacuum has hurt the disbursement of critical resources. (Chalfant, 4/6)

The Washington Post Fact Check: Trump’s Claim That He Imposed The First ‘China Ban’
President Trump regularly pats himself on the back for announcing travel restrictions on China as the novel coronavirus emerged in January. Before the caseload in the United States exploded, Trump attributed what he considered a small number of cases to that decision. Even as deaths from covid-19 in the United States started to soar, he said he saved lives by imposing what he calls a “ban” on China. (Kessler, 4/7)

Politico: ‘Doctors Disagree All The Time’: Navarro Drags Fauci Feud Into The Open
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday questioned the experience and medical judgment of Dr. Anthony Fauci — dragging his reported dispute with the nation’s top infectious diseases expert out of the White House Situation Room and onto cable news. In a fiery interview on CNN’s “New Day,” Navarro appeared to confirm media accounts of his altercation with Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during a meeting of the White House coronavirus task force Saturday. (Forgey, 4/6)

Politico: Inside DOJ's Nationwide Effort To Take On China
The leadership of the Justice Department has put a bull’s-eye on the Chinese government, pushing prosecutors across the country to focus on investigations of Chinese state-backed efforts to steal intellectual property. The work involves investigations into American academics and work with U.S. universities, and department officials say their nationwide undertaking isn’t slowing it down. The department’s targets range from Chinese military officers to American college professors — evidence, its leadership says, that the Chinese government is targeting every sector of American public life. (Woodruff Swan, 4/7)

Modern Healthcare: VA Delays Cerner EHR Project Amid COVID-19 Outbreak
The Veterans Affairs Department has paused the rollout of its multibillion-dollar electronic health record project on account of the novel coronavirus, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie wrote in a letter to Congress on Friday. "The worldwide pandemic created by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has shifted the overall priorities of the Department of Veterans Affairs," he wrote. "Our priority is the care of veterans and providing surge capabilities for civilian healthcare systems." (Cohen, 4/6)

Meanwhile, Trump spoke with 2020 front-runner Joe Biden about the outbreak for the first time —

The New York Times: Biden And Trump Speak About Coronavirus
Joseph R. Biden Jr. and President Trump spoke on Monday about the coronavirus pandemic, a rare direct conversation between the incumbent president and his likely Democratic challenger. Mr. Biden, who has been harshly critical of Mr. Trump’s handling of the crisis, had offered to speak with Mr. Trump in recent days. The two connected after Mr. Biden’s team renewed efforts to reach out to the White House on Monday after a tweet by Mr. Trump that read, “What ever happened to that phone call he told the Fake News he wanted to make to me?” (Goldmacher, 4/6)

The Associated Press: Trump, Biden Spoke By Phone About Coronavirus Outbreak
“He gave me his point of view, and I fully understood that, and we just had a very friendly conversation,” Trump said at his daily press briefing. The president said he and Biden agreed not to share the details of their conversation, but confirmed an earlier statement from the Biden campaign that the Democrat offered “suggestions” on how to address the pandemic. Biden had previously said he’d like to share with Trump some lessons he learned from dealing with similar crises during the Obama administration. (Jaffe and Miller, 4/7)

The Wall Street Journal: President Trump And Biden Speak By Phone About Coronavirus Response
Mr. Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, characterized the discussion as “a good call.” “VP Biden shared several suggestions for actions the Administration can take now to address the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and expressed his appreciation for the spirit of the American people in meeting the challenges facing the nation,” Ms. Bedingfield said in a statement. (Siddiqui, 4/6)

Kaiser Health News: Second Time Around? Health Care Issues Trump Might Tackle If Reelected
If President Donald Trump wins a second term in the White House, what health care policies might the nation expect from his administration? Julie Rovner, Kaiser Health News’ chief Washington correspondent, examines that issue in the new edition of Washington Monthly magazine. Although changes in health care might not have ranked high on the president’s priorities for a second term ― particularly if Democrats retain a majority in the House of Representatives — external factors such as the coronavirus pandemic could force the White House and Congress to work together to improve the nation’s public health infrastructure. (4/6)

The Washington Post: America’s Most Influential Coronavirus Model Just Revised Its Estimates Downward. But Not Every Model Agrees.
A leading forecasting model used by the White House to chart the coronavirus pandemic predicted Monday that the United States may need fewer hospital beds, ventilators and other equipment than previously projected and that some states may reach their peak of covid-19 deaths sooner than expected. ... Experts and state leaders, however, continued to steel themselves for grim weeks ahead, noting that the revised model created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington conflicts with many other models showing higher equipment shortages, deaths and projected peaks. (Wan and Johnson, 4/6)

The Associated Press: Modeling Coronavirus: 'Uncertainty Is The Only Certainty'
So how does modeling work? Take everything we know about how the coronavirus is spreading, when it’s deadly and when it’s not, when symptoms show and when they don’t. Then factor in everything we know about how people are reacting, social distancing, stay-at-home orders and other squishy human factors. Now add everything we know about testing, treating the disease and equipment shortages. Finally, mix in large dollops of uncertainty at every level. Squeeze all those thousands of data points into incredibly complex mathematical equations and voila, here’s what’s going to happen next with the pandemic. Except, remember, there’s a huge margin of error: For the prediction of U.S. deaths, the range is larger than the population of Wilmington, Delaware. (Borenstein and Johnson, 4/7)

ABC News: CDC Director Downplays Coronavirus Models, Says Death Toll Will Be 'Much Lower' Than Projected 
One of the nation’s top public health officials suggested Monday that because Americans are taking social distancing recommendations “to heart,” the death toll from the novel coronavirus will be “much, much, much lower” than models have projected. “If we just social distance, we will see this virus and this outbreak basically decline, decline, decline. And I think that's what you're seeing,” said Robert Redfield, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control. (Meek and Bruggeman, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Death Toll From Coronavirus Tops 10,000
The U.S. coronavirus death toll surpassed 10,000 at the start of a week that officials predicted would be America’s most difficult yet during the global pandemic, while the crisis in Britain deepened as the prime minister was moved to intensive care. Confirmed infections in the U.S. were more than double that of any other nation, at nearly 357,000, with the death toll at 10,783, according to data Monday from Johns Hopkins University. (Calfas, Ping and Kostov, 4/6)

NBC News: Behind The Global Efforts To Make A Privacy-First Coronavirus Tracking App
In a Google Doc that now stretches beyond 20 pages, software engineers and health experts are working out what they hope can be a way for the world to soon return to something resembling normal life. "What's the minimum duration of contact that we should consider important?" an engineer asked. It's one of many crucial questions from engineers who believe smartphone technology could be the key to creating a way to anonymously track the spread of the coronavirus — and by doing so help save lives and get people back to their jobs and social lives. (Ingram and Ward, 4/7)

The New York Times: Does My County Have An Epidemic? Estimates Show Hidden Transmission
As the coronavirus spreads silently through American cities and towns, people are struggling with questions about the benefits of social-distancing guidelines — especially in places that still have few reported cases. Is the epidemic here yet? Is staying home and limiting contact with others really worth the trouble? A new study by disease modelers at the University of Texas at Austin gives an answer: Even counties with just a single reported case have more than 50 percent likelihood that a sustained, undetected outbreak — an epidemic — is already taking place. (Glanz, Bloch and Singhvi, 4/3)

The New York Times: How The Theodore Roosevelt's Coronavirus Outbreak Became A Moral Crisis For The Military
President Trump’s acting Navy secretary, in a profanity-laced reprimand delivered Monday, criticized sailors aboard the stricken aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt for cheering their captain, who was removed after he appealed for help as coronavirus spread throughout the warship. The Navy’s top civilian, Thomas B. Modly, delivered his message over the ship’s loudspeaker system and deepened the raw us-versus-them atmosphere that had already engulfed the carrier. It also exposed the schism between a commander in chief with little regard for the military’s chain of command and the uniformed Navy that is sworn to follow him. (Cooper, Gibbons-Neff and Schmitt, 4/6)

The Associated Press: Navy Leader Calls Fired Carrier Captain 'Naive' Or 'Stupid'
In an extraordinary broadside punctuated with profanity, the Navy’s top leader accused the fired commander of the coronavirus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt of being “too naive or too stupid” to be in charge of an aircraft carrier. He delivered the criticism to sailors who had cheered the departing skipper last week. Hours after the remark was widely reported in the news media, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly issued a written public apology, saying he does not believe Capt. Brett E. Crozier is stupid or naive. (Baldor and Burns, 4/7)

The Washington Post: Navy Official’s Fiery Speech Deepens A Political Crisis As Warship Battles Coronavirus
Acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly told the sailors that Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, relieved of command on Thursday, committed a “betrayal” by writing the letter and distributing it to some people who were not in his chain of command. Modly left open two possibilities, both of which were damning. “It was my opinion that if he didn’t think information was going to get out into the public in this information age that we live in, then he was either A, too naive or too stupid to be the commanding officer of a ship like this,” Modly said. (Lamothe and Sonne, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Acting Navy Secretary Apologizes For Berating Ousted Captain Of Coronavirus-Hit USS Roosevelt
In an about-face, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly apologized Monday night for his profanity-tinged remarks over the loudspeakers of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, in which he called the aircraft carrier’s former commander stupid or naive for writing and distributing a memo about a coronavirus outbreak. (Youssef, Kesling, Lubold and Craymer, 4/6)

Reuters: Trump Says May Jump Into Navy Furor After Captain Ridiculed In Speech
U.S. President Donald Trump said he may get involved in a deepening crisis in the Navy after its top civilian on Monday ridiculed a revered former commander whose letter pleading for help for his coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier was leaked to the public. (Stewart and Ali, 4/6)

ABC News: Crewmember On Navy Hospital Ship Comfort Tests Positive For Coronavirus 
A crew member aboard the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort has tested positive for novel coronavirus and is currently in isolation aboard the ship that is currently docked in New York City, according to a U.S. Navy statement. The news comes on the same day that the hospital ship was designated to begin treating COVID-19 patients in New York City, a reversal from the earlier policy that it could only treat patients not infected with the coronavirus. (Martinez, 4/6)

The New York Times: Despite Staggering Death Toll, Outbreak Could Be Slowing
New York, the epicenter of the global coronavirus outbreak, has begun to show the first signs of controlling the crisis: Its staggering death and hospitalization rates have started to stabilize, according to figures released by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Monday. But striking a note of optimistic caution, Mr. Cuomo warned that the state’s progress could continue only if New Yorkers maintained a sense of discipline and suppressed their natural impulse to gather in the parks or on the streets, especially as the spring weather starts improving. (Feuer, 4/6)

The New York Times: When Will N.Y.C. Reach The Peak Of The Outbreak? Here’s What We Know
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has said in the past week that he believes the number of coronavirus cases in New York will hit its high point this week, and then hopefully begin to drop. But even he acknowledges the uncertainty of that prediction. “The projection models have a number of alternatives,” he said at a news conference on Monday. “Some suggest basically the curve goes up and then drops precipitously. Some suggest a slight pause at the top. Some suggest there’s a longer pause at the top, which is effectively a plateau effect, or again the straight up and straight down precipitous drop, which is the peak effect. No one can tell you which will occur.” (Goldstein, 4/6)

The Washington Post: New York Leaders Hopeful Coronavirus Is Peaking, Flattening
“While none of this is good news, the possible flattening of the curve is better than the increases we have seen,” Cuomo said during a news conference. Two days of data is not nearly enough to identify a trend, but officials said there were other glimmers of hope, including significant declines in the past two days in the number of new people hospitalized, admitted to intensive care units and intubated. (Guarino, Craig and Barrett, 4/6)

Reuters: Outbreak Shows Signs Of Leveling Off In New York, New Jersey, But Vigilance Urged
Although coronavirus cases and deaths continued to mount, the governors cited data suggesting the rates of growth and hospitalizations were slowing, possibly signaling a peak was at hand in three U.S. epicenters of the pandemic. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said statewide deaths from COVID-19, the highly contagious respiratory illness caused by the virus, were up 599 from Sunday, on par with an increase of 594 during the previous 24 hours and 630 on Friday. The state’s overall tally of confirmed cases grew by 7% from the previous day to 130,680. But hospitalizations, admissions to intensive care units and the number of patients put on ventilator machines to keep them breathing had all declined, Cuomo said. (Layne and Szekely, 4/6)

NBC News: New York Coronavirus Deaths 'Effectively Flat' As U.S. Braces For Peak Cases In Hot Spots
New York remains at the center of the coronavirus outbreak with more than one-third of all cases in the United States and about half of the deaths, which has put a tremendous strain on the state's health care system. Medical workers have complained about the lack of personal protective equipment and the need for more resources, including staffing, as the crisis deepens. Two field hospitals in Manhattan — one in Central Park and the other at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center — have been operating in full swing to relieve overburdened hospitals. (Ortiz, 4/6)

Politico: Murphy: Curve Flattening In New Jersey But ‘This Is Not Over. And Not By A Long Shot.’
It’s been two weeks since New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy ordered residents to stay in their homes and avoid outside contact in an attempt to halt the unprecedented destruction being wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. On Monday, the same day New Jersey’s total number of Covid-19 deaths surpassed 1,000, Murphy said those efforts are beginning to show fruit. (Sutton, 4/6)

CNN: NY Mayor Says Rumors Of Temporary Burials In Public Parks Are 'Totally False' 
After a city councilman said New York may need to bury coronavirus victims in a city park as morgues run out of room, Mayor Bill de Blasio made it clear Monday there are no such plans and that such rumors are "totally false." '"There will never, ever be anything like 'mass graves' or 'mass internment' in New York City ever," de Blasio said. (Morales, Joseph and McLaughlin, 4/6)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus In New York: A Queens Funeral Home Struggles As Bodies Mount
The phone began ringing before the front doors were open. “Neufeld Funeral Home, how can I help you?” said Joe Neufeld Jr., still in shorts and a T-shirt and operating on little sleep. “Yes. Okay. And what was your father’s name?” The days were blurring together and now another was underway at the small brick building with the faded maroon awning in the Elmhurst neighborhood of New York City — “The epicenter of the epicenter,” as Joe’s father described their increasingly dire position. (McCrummen, 4/4)

The New York Times: One Final Step For 52 Medical Students, Eager To Join The Fight
From dorm rooms and apartments, 52 medical students watched video of themselves roll across their screens. Miles away, their proud families followed online. Gazing into webcams, the students pledged the Hippocratic oath in frayed unison, dozens of different starts and voices, all coming to the same point. They could get on with doctoring. On Friday, a virtual graduation was held over video chat for nearly half the 2020 class at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine. (Dwyer, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: New York’s Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Community Warned About Large Funeral Crowds
New York officials on Monday urged ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities to follow social-distancing rules after police broke up crowds at three religious funerals in Brooklyn over the weekend. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference that he would double the maximum fines to $1,000 for people who flout the rules. “This is my way of saying, this is serious,” Mr. Cuomo said, referencing large ultra-Orthodox gatherings. “What right do you have to act irresponsibly in a way that could get you sick?” (Berger and Chapman, 4/6)

The Washington Post: Deaths In The DMV Increase As Officials Warn It Could Be Next Hot Spot
The District, Maryland and Virginia saw their biggest single-day increase in fatalities related to the novel coronavirus Monday, with deaths up to 169 as officials warned that the region could become one of the country’s next hot spots and hospitals prepared for a surge. Data released in the District — which for the first time Monday included a breakdown by race — showed that deaths are disproportionately concentrated among black residents, as has been the case elsewhere in the country. (Chason, Nirappil, Portnoy and Harden, 4/6)

The New York Times: A ‘Liberty’ Rebellion In Idaho Threatens To Undermine Coronavirus Orders
Inside an old factory building north of Boise, a few dozen people gathered last week to hear from Ammon Bundy, the man who once led an armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge. The meeting, which appeared to violate orders by Gov. Brad Little of Idaho to avoid group gatherings, was an assertion of what Mr. Bundy said was a constitutional right to peacefully assemble. But Mr. Bundy said he also hoped to create a network of people ready to come to the aid of those facing closure of their businesses or other interference from the government as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. (Baker, 4/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Pandemic Leads To Shunning And Shaming In Small Towns
Last week, William Zordani and his large family took their Golden Retriever, Sunshine, for a walk near their home in this leafy suburb north of Chicago as they waited out the coronavirus shutdown. That evening, a woman who lives a few blocks away posted a photo of Mr. Zordani, his mother and five of his six siblings on their walk to the town’s Facebook news site, lambasting them for ignoring social-distancing rules and endangering the community. “Why are people so stupid,” one commenter wrote in the screed that followed. Another chimed in: “Where are parents?” A third indicated she had forwarded the photo to the mayor. (Beklin, 4/7)

Los Angeles Times: As L.A. Coronavirus Deaths Rise, Locals Should Stay Inside
As coronavirus cases and deaths continue to spike across Los Angeles County, health officials Monday urged residents to stay home this week, to limit time spent outside and to even avoid shopping if possible to slow the spread of the virus. “If you have enough supplies in your home, this would be the week to skip shopping altogether,” said public health department Director Barbara Ferrer. (4/6)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Restaurants Pivot To Feed The Homeless During Coronavirus Pandemic
When the Bay Area’s shelter-in-place order came down on March 16, Luka’s Taproom & Lounge owner Rick Mitchell watched his business drop 90% overnight, with a small boost when they created a takeout menu. But the Uptown Oakland restaurant and pub was bustling again Monday with a second name — Luka’s Community Kitchen — and a new mission, working under the umbrella of a nonprofit to feed the unsheltered and vulnerable. (Hartlaub, 4/7)

CNN: Los Angeles Crime Plunges During The Coronavirus Stay At Home Order
Los Angeles has seen a 23% drop in crime in the past month as California has been under a stay at home order to fight the spread of coronavirus, the city's police chief said. "People staying home in their neighborhoods, watching out for each other, and exercising social distancing is allowing us to have a safer city," Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore said. (Holcombe, 4/7)

San Francisco Chronicle: A Glimmer Of Hope In The Bay Area: New Coronavirus Cases Slowing 
Three weeks of sheltering in place have noticeably lessened the impact of the coronavirus in the Bay Area, where the number of new infections is already slowing down even as federal officials warn that other parts of the country may be facing their worst weeks. In other words: That dreaded curve is starting to flatten out, just a little. (Allday, 4/6)

KQED: 'This Virus Is Horrible': A Son's Warning To Heed Public Health Authorities After Losing Dad To COVID-19 
The state reports 276 Californians have died as a result of the global pandemic. On the day of that airport pickup, there were none. Over this month, families and the health system that cares for COVID-19 patients are just beginning to make sense of what is happening. Among them are the Holdermans, who hope Kermit’s story motivates people to stay alert to the virus’ threat. (Peterson, 4/6)

KQED: As Coronavirus Crisis Deepens, SF Muni Forced To Cancel Service On Most Lines 
Bay Area transit, which has seen a series of sharp service reductions with most residents sheltering at home during the coronavirus crisis, will see its biggest cutbacks to date this week as San Francisco's Muni dramatically curtails its remaining service. The Municipal Transportation Agency says as many as 40% of its bus operators will be off the job starting Monday due to coronavirus concerns. (Brekke, 4/6)

KQED: Bay Area COVID-19 Outbreaks Worsen, Spread In Long-Term Care Homes
In Contra Costa County, the Orinda Care Center now counts at least 51 cases of coronavirus, including a death.  Outbreaks have been reported in San Francisco and South Bay county senior care homes, too. Local health departments always advise these facilities about controlling infections; infectious disease like influenza is common. Now coronavirus is forcing them to adapt and challenging response. (Peterson, 4/6)

KQED: Amid Pandemic, Some California Sheriffs’ Departments Still Evicting Renters 
Nearly two weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered 40 million Californians to “shelter in place” to avoid spreading COVID-19, and just days after he issued an executive order declaring a “statewide eviction moratorium,” some sheriffs’ departments across California were still forcibly removing or planning to forcibly remove renters like Waldman. Their evictions are not protected by state or local emergency measures because they are not directly related to financial fallout from the coronavirus. (Levin, 4/6)

The Hill: Federal Judge Partially Blocks Oklahoma Abortion Ban 
A federal judge in Oklahoma granted a temporary restraining order Monday against the state's ban on abortion during the coronavirus pandemic. United States District Judge Charles Goodwin, a Trump appointee, ruled the ban would cause “irreparable harm” to women unable to get abortions . Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed an executive order last month directing medical providers to postpone all elective surgeries, including abortions, until April 30 in an effort to conserve medical supplies for health workers on the front lines of the pandemic. (Hellmann, 4/6)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Coronavirus In Ohio: Appeals Court Allows Some Surgical Abortions To Continue Amid COVID-19
A panel of appeals court judges allowed some surgical abortions to continue in Ohio. On Monday, a trio of judges from the Sixth Circuit decided not to interfere with a federal court judge's decision to temporarily block a state health order halting abortions during coronavirus. Judge Michael Barrett had issued a temporary restraining order, blocking the state from banning all surgical abortions because of an Ohio Department of Health order blocking most elective surgeries. (Balmert, 4/6)

Cincinnati Enquirer: To Prevent Coronavirus Spread, Hamilton County Paying For Hotels For The Homeless
Homeless shelters can be cramped and crowded, not a good combination during a pandemic. That's why area shelters have rented 330 hotel rooms in Hamilton County so the homeless can practice adequate social distancing and prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, said Denise Driehaus, president of the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners. (Wartman, 4/6)

WBUR: Boston Medical Center ICU Reaches Capacity Sunday, A First During COVID-19 Crisis 
In what appears to be the first time a Boston ICU has reached capacity in the coronavirus pandemic, Boston Medical Center was treating so many patients who needed intensive care on Sunday that it had to stop accepting new patients into the ICU during the overnight hours, the hospital says. The worrisome milestone comes at a time when state, federal and local officials are warning that the viral outbreak may be entering a surge period in Massachusetts and other states. (Goldberg, Bebinger and Harrison, 4/6)

WBUR: Mass. Community Health Centers Furlough Staffers, Fear More To Come 
Many of the 52 Community Health Centers in Massachusetts are placing staff on furlough amid a worsening coronavirus outbreak . Health center leaders say this is the first round of layoffs — with more potentially to follow — as health centers struggle with a loss of revenue from check-ups, dental care, elective tests and procedures that have been postponed during the coronavirus pandemic. (Bebinger, 4/6)

WBUR: Boston's Homeless Population Experiencing 'Significant Surge' In Coronavirus Cases
Boston's homeless population is seeing a major increase in coronavirus cases, according to the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. "It's hitting severely right now," says Dr. Jessie Gaeta, the program's chief medical officer. "We're in about ... day three of a significant surge that is more dramatic than we anticipated." (Joliocoeur, 4/6)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Flu Hits Rural Georgia Hard, Data Shows. Will COVID-19 Do The Same?
Years of seasonal flu data in Georgia tell a clear story: the state’s most rural residents, who tend to be poorer, older, less educated and farther from health care, die at higher rates than those living in urban centers such as metro Atlanta. Experts are unsure if the same will hold true for COVID-19. (Joyner and Perry, 4/7)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: 'It’s Horrendous': Louisiana Coronavirus Patients' Final Moments Are Often Without Loved Ones
Just weeks ago, a patient facing a medical procedure could rely on the bedside presence of a family member, squeezing their hand and wishing them well in the moments before they’re given anesthesia. But as New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana face a surge in coronavirus cases, hospitals statewide are placing strict limits on who can enter their facilities. The Louisiana Department of Health ordered the restrictions to limit the spread of the highly infectious coronavirus. That's left many patients without the nearby comfort of a loved one. (Paterson, Gallo and Woodruff, 4/6)

Houston Chronicle: Drive-Thrus Explode In Popularity During Houston Area's Stay-At-Home' Order
Drive-thrus are no longer just for a No. 1 combo meal at Whataburger.As public health officials enact longer stay-at-home orders to slow the transmission of the new coronavirus, the usual sit-down and come-inside places — donation centers, churches and restaurants — are opting to distribute goods and services through car windows. (Wu, 4/5)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Las Vegas Hiring For Quarantine Complex
The Cashman Isolation-Quarantine Complex, which is set to open this week, is hiring staff to help serve the homeless. The city of Las Vegas and Clark County said in a joint statement that they are looking for “qualified medical staff, health care para-professionals and support personnel” for temporary positions at the 24-hour facility. Training and operations are scheduled to begin Wednesday, according to the statement. (Egeland, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Puts A Prison Under Siege
A Louisiana prison guard sat alongside a sick inmate for more than an hour inside a van and his hospital room, told by a supervisor he didn’t need a mask despite the prisoner’s severe cough and other telltale signs of Covid-19. Within 10 days, the 49-year-old inmate, Patrick Jones, was dead from the coronavirus. The officer, Aubrey Melder, was back at work, having been told days earlier to return, without quarantining, to his duties inside the low-security prison in Oakdale, a lawyer for the union representing prisons employees said. (Gurman, Elinson and Paul, 4/6)

Meanwhile —

The Wall Street Journal: First Rikers Island Inmate Dies After Coronavirus Infection
A Rikers Island inmate who had tested positive for the new coronavirus died Sunday, marking the New York City jail complex’s first death of an inmate who fell ill from the disease, officials said. The Rikers Island inmate, identified by his attorneys as Michael Tyson, 53 years old, was moved to Bellevue hospital in Manhattan on March 26 after becoming ill, city Department of Correction officials said. (Chapman, 4/6)

The Hill: Barr Tells Prosecutors To Consider Coronavirus Risk When Determining Bail: Report
Attorney General William Barr reportedly told prosecutors in a Monday memo to consider coronavirus risks with incarceration when determining bail for defendants. Barr told top federal prosecutors across the country to consider the dangers the defendant could face while being detained, as well as the risks of putting another defendant in prison for the rest of the population, Politico reported. (Coleman, 4/6)

The New York Times: Wisconsin Election Fight Heralds A National Battle Over Virus-Era Voting
Wisconsin voters will face a choice between protecting their health and exercising their civic duty on Tuesday after state Republican leaders, backed up by a conservative majority on the state’s Supreme Court, rebuffed the Democratic governor’s attempt to postpone in-person voting in their presidential primary and local elections. The political and legal skirmishing throughout Monday was only the first round of an expected national fight over voting rights in the year of Covid-19. (Herndon and Rutenberg, 4/6)

The Washington Post: Wisconsin Supreme Court Blocks Order By Governor To Stop Tuesday’s Elections In State’s Latest Whipsaw
The rapid-fire series of developments unleashed a torrent of confusion across Wisconsin. After Evers issued the order, some local governments announced that voting was canceled, while state officials urged election clerks to proceed as if the polls would open. Legal experts, meanwhile, questioned whether Evers’s actions were constitutional. “Unfortunately, they turned the health of our state into a political issue,” said Lois Frank, the village clerk in tiny Cambria, in eastern Wisconsin. (Gardner, Viebeck and Simmons, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Wisconsin Election To Proceed After Conservative Courts Block Measures To Extend Balloting
Mr. Evers said that allowing the election to proceed goes against the advice of public-health experts. “Tomorrow in Wisconsin, thousands will wake up and have to choose between exercising their right to vote and staying healthy and safe,” he said. Last week, a federal judge in Madison, Wis., ordered election officials to accept absentee ballots received through April 13. Monday’s Supreme Court order allows ballots received through April 13 to be counted, but only if they were postmarked by Tuesday April 7. (Corse and Bravin, 4/7)

The Associated Press: Pandemic Politics: Wisconsin Primary Moving Forward
The National Guard will help run voting sites across the state after thousands of election workers stepped down fearing for their safety. Dozens of polling places will be closed, but those that are active will open at 7 a.m. CDT. Results were not expected to be released election night. In the wake of a legal battle over whether to conduct the election as scheduled, a court ruling appeared to prevent results from being made public earlier than April 13. (Bauer and Peoples, 4/7)

Politico: Wisconsin Is Holding The Most Dangerous Election Ever. Here’s Why.
It’s a civic catastrophe that never should have happened. But it’s also the culmination of a decade of total political war waged across one of the nation’s most competitive states — a Midwestern battleground poised to play an oversized role in the presidential election in November. “I’ve been here 10 years watching this. I am surprised that I’m surprised,” former Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate said of the politics he believes pushed the election forward amid a pandemic. “If anybody thinks that if we were under Gov. Walker that this court would have ruled the same way that they have today has not been paying attention to what’s been going on in this state for the last decade.” (Korecki, 4/7)

NBC News: Democrats Warn People Will Die As Courts Rule Wisconsin's Election On For Tuesday
Later in the day, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Wisconsin Republicans on a separate issue, voting 5-4 along ideological lines to overturn a lower federal court's decision to extend a deadline for absentee balloting. Results will not be released until April 13, however, the Wisconsin Election Commission decided in an emergency meeting Monday, citing a part of the lower court ruling the Supreme Court did not overturn. (Seitz-Wald, 4/6)

Meanwhile —

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Crisis Offers Test For Biden’s VP Shortlist
Joe Biden is expected to begin the vetting process for his running mate this month, as the coronavirus pandemic poses a key test for several potential contenders who have been involved in the response. Mr. Biden, the former vice president who has consolidated much of the party’s support behind him after a string of Democratic primary wins, has said he plans to vet six to 10 women—he has committed to selecting a woman—for the vice presidential nomination. (Parti and Jamerson, 4/7)

The New York Times: Trump’s Aggressive Advocacy Of Malaria Drug For Treating Coronavirus Divides Medical Community
President Trump made a rare appearance in the Situation Room on Sunday as his pandemic task force was meeting, determined to talk about the anti-malaria medicine that he has aggressively promoted lately as a treatment for the coronavirus. Once again, according to a person briefed on the session, the experts warned against overselling a drug yet to be proved a safe remedy, particularly for heart patients. “Yes, the heart stuff,” Mr. Trump acknowledged. Then he headed out to the cameras to promote it anyway. “So what do I know?” he conceded to reporters at his daily briefing. “I’m not a doctor. But I have common sense.” (Baker, Rogers, Enrich and Haberman, 4/6)

The Associated Press: White House Pushes Unproven Drug For Virus, But Doctors Wary
Trump held out promise for the drug as he grasps for ways to sound hopeful in the face of a mounting death toll and with the worst weeks yet to come for the U.S. The virus has killed more than 10,000 in the U.S., and measures meant to contain its spread have taken a painful economic toll and all but frozen life in large swaths of the country. But medical officials warn that it’s dangerous to be hawking unproven remedies, and even Trump’s own experts have cautioned against it. (Miller and Riechmann, 4/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Pushes Broader Use Of Hydroxychloroquine Against Coronavirus
At the briefing later that evening, a reporter asked Dr. Fauci for his view on whether there is evidence hydroxychloroquine helps treat coronavirus. The president interrupted before he could answer. “Do you know how many times he’s answered that question? Maybe 15—15 times,” Mr. Trump said, pointing at the reporter. “You don’t have to ask the question.” (Ballhaus and Hopkins, 4/6)

Politico: Trump’s ‘Hail Mary’ Drug Push Rattles His Health Team
The rush to focus on unproven drugs also comes after months of lost opportunities to contain the spread of the outbreak. “There’d be less focus on [hydroxychloroquine] now if we had planned better then,” said one official, who added that the drug is seen by some career scientists as a “Hail Mary” effort to find a Covid-19 cure. Trump is as enthusiastic about the drug in private as he is in public, said one senior administration official. He talks about the drug so often, another official added, because he views it as a potential therapy for the coronavirus when people have no other options. (Diamond and Cook, 4/6)

The Washington Post: ‘What Do You Have To Lose?’: Inside Trump’s Embrace Of A Risky Drug Against Coronavirus
Trump’s swift embrace of hydroxychloroquine — as well as azithromycin, which he has hyped as “one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine” — illustrates the degree to which the president prioritizes anecdote and feeling over science and fact. It also has provoked an ugly divide within a White House already besieged as it struggles to make up for lost time in slowing the spread of the coronavirus. The president has frequently clashed with or undercut scientists leading the effort against the virus, from equivocating on whether to wear masks in public to repeatedly pressing to reopen businesses sooner than advised by public health experts. (Rucker, Costa, McGinley and Dawsey, 4/6)

NBC News: Top Trump Aide Says Fauci's Caution On Possible Coronavirus Treatment Warrants A 'Second Opinion'
President Donald Trump's top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, said Monday that Dr. Anthony Fauci's caution about the effectiveness of an anti-malaria drug that the president has been urging as a treatment for the coronavirus warrants a "second opinion." Asked about an Axios report that he and Fauci got into a heated argument about the drug during a coronavirus task force meeting Saturday, Navarro told CNN, "There was that discussion on Saturday, and if we didn't have disagreement and debate in the Trump administration, this administration would not be as strong as it is." (Gregorian, 4/6)

ABC News: Before The White House, Trump Called NIH 'Terrible,' Questioned Vaccines 
With the coronavirus crisis deepening on his watch, President Donald Trump in recent weeks has promoted a still-unproven malaria drug as a possible "game changer," touted his administration's "unprecedented" moves to fast-track a vaccine, and praised the work of the National Institutes of Health. But when Barack Obama was still in the White House and facing earlier global health crises, Trump expressed much different views, denouncing NIH as "terrible," claiming vaccines "can be very dangerous," and cautioning against medicines that have yet to be proven safe and effective. (Levine, 4/7)

The Hill: Cuomo: Use Of Antimalarial Drug In New York Hospitals 'Anecdotally' Positive 
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Monday that early responses to the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine “anecdotally” suggest its use in the coronavirus fight has been “effective,” but that official data was still forthcoming. Asked about the progress of the trials at his daily press briefing, Cuomo noted that state officials have allowed use of the drug in combination with the antibiotic Zithromax in hospitals “at their discretion.” (Budryk, 4/6)

The Washington Post: FAQ: What You Need To Know About Hydroxychloroquine And The Coronavirus
The lack of vaccines and treatment for the novel coronavirus has allowed it to sweep the planet virtually unchecked. With a regimen of hunkering down and hand-washing the only effective way to slow its path, national leaders are desperate to find a medicine that could have an effect. But President Trump’s cheerleading for anti-malarial drugs has raised hopes beyond what is supported by the scientific facts. (Rowland, 4/6)

The Associated Press: What To Know About Malaria Drug And Coronavirus Treatment
Some politicians and doctors are sparring over whether to use hydroxychloroquine against the new coronavirus, with many scientists saying the evidence is too thin to recommend it now. HOW IS IT BEING USED? The drug can help tame an overactive immune system. It’s been used since the 1940s to prevent and treat malaria, and to treat rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. It’s sold in generic form and under the brand name Plaquenil in the United States. Doctors also can prescribe it “off label” for other purposes, as many are doing now for COVID-19. (4/7)

Stat: Fact-Checking Trump’s Optimistic Hydroxychloroquine Claims 
There is also some evidence that some Americans have tried to self-administer chloroquine formulations in the wake of Trump’s comments. One eBay seller recently sold hundreds of packets of chloroquine phosphate — which is also marketed as an antiparasitic used in fish tanks — for hundreds of dollars apiece. And in Arizona, a man died after ingesting chloroquine phosphate to guard against the coronavirus. Below, STAT fact-checks Trump’s full remarks on hydroxychloroquine from his Sunday briefing. (Facher, 4/6)

Reuters: India Allows Limited Exports Of Anti-Malaria Drug After Trump Warns Of Retaliation
India, the world’s main supplier of generic drugs, said on Tuesday it will allow limited exports of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine that U.S. President Donald Trump has touted as a potential weapon in the fight against the coronavirus. (Dasgupta and Miglani, 4/6)

Politico: How A Chance Twitter Thread Launched Trump’s Favorite Coronavirus Drug
In mid-March, a cryptocurrency investor, a law school graduate and a self-described philosopher found each other on Twitter. They discussed their hopes that a little-known drug called hydroxychloroquine could help contain the accelerating coronavirus outbreak. Two days later, two of them published a paper about the drug’s potential on Google Docs, falsely claiming the imprimatur of two major universities and the National Academy of Sciences. (Nguyen, 4/7)

The Hill: House Democrats Call On Trump Administration To Lift Restrictions On Fetal Tissue For Coronavirus Research 
More than a dozen House Democrats on Monday called on the Trump administration to lift restrictions on research that uses human fetal tissue to allow for studies on potential treatment for COVID-19. The lawmakers argued in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar that such studies could lead to developing coronavirus treatments more quickly. Public health officials have estimated that a vaccine will not be available for at least another 12 to 18 months. (Marcos, 4/6)

Stat: A $30 Billion Gamble: Pandemic Expert Calls For Making Covid-19 Vaccines Before We Know They Work
There’s a one-word exit strategy for the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, which is crippling economies around the world: vaccines. Political leaders and captains of industry know preventing Covid-19 infections is the only way to get the global economy back on its feet, said Richard Hatchett, CEO of an organization tailor-made to help spur the critical work of making vaccines. They also know, he said, that vaccine development will not be cheap. (Branswell, 4/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Scientists Rush To Find Coronavirus Cure—But It Still Isn’t Fast Enough
For drug companies, there is suddenly only one priority: the coronavirus. More than 140 experimental drug treatments and vaccines for the coronavirus are in development world-wide, most in early stages, including 11 already in clinical trials, according to Informa Pharma Intelligence. Counting drugs approved for other diseases, there are 254 clinical trials testing treatments or vaccines for the virus, many spearheaded by universities and government research agencies, with hundreds more trials planned. Researchers have squeezed timelines that usually total months into weeks or even days. (Walker, Loftus and Hopkins, 4/6)

Stat: A Cheat Sheet For The Imminent Data On Gilead's Potential Coronavirus Drug
This month, the world should get the first results from a clinical trial testing the drug remdesivir against Covid-19. They will get a lot of attention. Remdesivir, made by the California biotech Gilead Sciences, is one of the potential Covid-19 therapies that is furthest along in the development process. The results, from studies in China, could signal whether the drug can effectively combat the infection — and under which circumstances. (Joseph, Feuerstein, Garde and Herper, 4/6)

Stat: A Former Novartis Exec Wants To Repurpose Generic Drugs To Fight Covid-19
As Covid-19 sweeps the globe, a growing number of efforts are underway to quickly research and develop treatments and vaccines. Yet much of the work is disjointed and widespread access to any medical product is uncertain. One idea, suggested by Costa Rican officials, is for the World Health Organization to create a voluntary pool and collect patent rights, regulatory test data, and other information that could be shared for product development. (Silverman, 4/7)

The Associated Press: Congress, White House Reach High For Next Virus Bill
Congressional leaders are jolting ahead with another coronavirus rescue package as President Donald Trump indicated that Americans will need more aid during the stark pandemic and economic shutdown. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said another $1 trillion is needed, beyond the just-passed $2.2 trillion effort. She wants another round of direct payments to Americans and more money for companies to keep making payroll. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said in recent days that health care should top the list, signaling his intent to get to work on a new bill. (Mascaro, 4/7)

The Washington Post: Worried That $2 Trillion Law Wasn’t Enough, Trump And Congressional Leaders Converge On Need For New Coronavirus Economic Package
Democrats are looking to extend unemployment aid and small-business assistance for additional months, as well as authorize another round of direct checks to taxpayers. Trump has signaled support for some of the ideas that Democrats back, such as expanded help for small-business owners and new bailout checks for households. The rushed effort comes as the economy’s fortunes appear tethered to political decisions in Washington. A surge of demand for new Small Business Administration loans has overwhelmed the agency’s system, but the Dow Jones industrial average rose 1,627 points, or 7.7 percent, on Monday amid Wall Street optimism that the pandemic’s domestic spread could be slowing. (Werner and DeBonis, 4/6)

Politico: Schumer Taps Warren Aide For New Coronavirus Oversight Commission
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will appoint Bharat Ramamurti, a former Elizabeth Warren aide, to a newly created panel meant to police the Trump administration’s handling of a $500 billion coronavirus relief fund. Schumer described Ramamurti Monday as “ferocious in his desire to protect the public from abuse.” (Levine and Cheney, 4/6)

The Hill: Trump Officials Struggle To Get Coronavirus-Relief Loans Out The Door
The Trump administration is struggling to work out the kinks of a coronavirus small-business loan program after a chaotic start Friday. Some banks say they are unable to access Small Business Administration (SBA) platforms, while industry leaders say there are unanswered questions about applying for loans and how to take advantage of them. (Gangitano, 4/6)

Politico: 'Huge, Unprecedented, Devastating Hit’: Warnings Mount About Economic Damage
The nation’s former top central banker called the damage “absolutely shocking.” The head of America's largest bank said he’s preparing for financial dysfunction similar to 2008. And a gauge of consumer sentiment showed soaring angst across the economy. New warnings mounted throughout Monday, signaling turmoil ahead for the economy despite a surprise resurgence in the stock market. The signs of economic distress point to deeper trouble in the months ahead as the coronavirus crisis worsens in cities outside New York and New Jersey. (Guida, 4/6)

Stateline: Pockets Of Rural America Are Less Vulnerable To Economic Fallout — For Now 
Every part of the country will feel the economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis. But the small and isolated rural areas that lagged during the economic boom may fare better, relatively speaking, in the aftermath of the pandemic. Those places tend to be less tied to global and financial markets. With little population density, they are less conducive to virus transmission. So far, states such as Wyoming, the Dakotas, Nebraska and Iowa have reported far fewer COVID-19 cases than New York and other states with large cities. (Simpson, 4/7)

Kaiser Health News: Young People Weigh Pain Of Job Loss Against Risks Of Virus
Emilio Romero, 23, has mixed feelings about losing his job. It’s a major financial setback, but with two previous hospitalizations for pneumonia, a restaurant was not the safest place for the recent college graduate as the COVID-19 pandemic mushroomed. “Working in a restaurant, there’s obviously exposure to a lot of people and dirty plates,” Romero said. “Even before I was officially laid off, I was getting pretty nervous about the way everything was playing out, for my own safety.” (Almendrala, 4/6)

The Hill: Dow Soars More Than 1600 Points On Hopes Of Slowing Coronavirus Spread 
Stocks closed with major gains Monday on hopes that the coronavirus pandemic would peak sooner in the U.S. than had been expected. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed with a gain of 1,627 points, soaring almost 7.7 percent Monday. The S&P 500 rose 7 percent and the Nasdaq composite gained 7.3 percent on the day. A sharp rise in Dow futures trading Sunday paved the way to a 1,000-point rally in industrials when the market opened Monday, fueled largely by optimism from President Trump and potentially encouraging data from New York. (Lane, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Orders 167 Million Face Masks From 3M For Coronavirus Pandemic
President Trump said the government would buy nearly 167 million masks from 3M Co. over the next three months, resolving a spat with the industrial conglomerate over efforts to ramp up supply of gear for front-line workers confronting the coronavirus pandemic. Mr. Trump criticized 3M’s mask-making efforts last week and invoked the Defense Production Act against the company. That Korean War-era law gives the president power to compel manufacturers to make operational changes in the national interest. Health workers across the country are running short on masks as well as the gowns, ventilators and face shields they need to treat the sickest patients with Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. (Leary and Hufford, 4/6)

CNN: Trump Announces Face Mask Manufacturing Deal With 3M After Contentious Negotiations 
President Donald Trump announced the "saga" between his administration and 3M has ended with the finalization of a deal that will see the manufacturer supplying millions of masks for health care workers. Trump announced at the coronavirus task force briefing that the White House had "reached an agreement, very amicable, with 3M for the delivery of an additional 55.5 million high-quality face masks each month." In total, Trump said 3M would produce 166.5 million masks -- nearly all N95s. (Westwood and Diamond, 4/7)

The Hill: Trump Says He's Reached 'Amicable' Agreement With 3M To Make Masks 
The company said in a statement last week that the administration was trying to stop it from exporting masks to Canada and Latin America, which would have "significant humanitarian implications of ceasing respirator supplies to healthcare workers in Canada and Latin America." (Sullivan, 4/6)

The Hill: More Than 700 Employees At One Detroit Hospital System Test Positive For Coronavirus 
Hundreds of staff at a Detroit-area hospital system have tested positive for coronavirus, the hospital's chief clinical officer said Monday evening. Nonprofit news site BridgeMI.com reported that Dr. Adnan Munkarah of the Henry Ford Hospital Campus confirmed 731 cases of the coronavirus among employees at the hospital, accounting for 2 percent of the hospital system's 31,600 employees. As many as 1,500 at another hospital system in the state have reported symptoms similar to coronavirus, though those numbers are not confirmed cases. (Bowden, 4/6)

ABC News: Military 3D-Printing Face Shields, Reusable N95 Masks To Address Hospital Shortages 
The U.S. military is 3D-printing face shields, designing reusable plastic N95 masks and sewing surgical masks to increase the supply of critical medical equipment as hospitals across the U.S. work to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Nine Navy and Marine Corps commands began their 3D-printing efforts on March 28 after the Federal Emergency Management Agency requested the initial production of 220 medical face shields, the Navy said in a news release. (McLaughlin, 4/7)

ABC News: Trump, Other Top Officials Yet To Don Masks In Public Despite Announcing CDC Guidelines 
President Donald Trump made the dramatic announcement on Friday after days of internal debate and anticipation: a recommendation that Americans wear cloth masks when they go out in public, guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But in the days since, neither the president nor members of the coronavirus task force has been seen wearing them, participating in daily press conferences without any facial covering, DIY or otherwise. (Haslett, 4/6)

WBUR: Somerville N95 Decontamination Site Opens With Plans To Disinfect Up To 80,000 Masks A Day 
A system to decontaminate medical-grade N95 face masks began operating Monday in Somerville. Officials said the nonprofit Battelle-owned system hosted by Boston-based Partners Healthcare can clean up to 80,000 masks per day, and each mask can be disinfected up to 10 times before it needs to be thrown out. (Monahan, 4/6)

ABC News: DIY Masks May Not Protect You From COVID-19. But Here's Why It's Smart To Wear One 
Following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new recommendation that Americans wear cloth face masks in public, especially in areas with significant COVID-19 spread, many are asking which materials offer the best protection against the virus. Americans can use "cloth face coverings fashioned from household items or made at home from common materials at low cost," the CDC website says. (Schumaker, 4/6)

The New York Times: Delays And Shortages Exacerbate Coronavirus Testing Gaps In The U.S.
Three weeks ago, Dr. Elaine Cham, a pathologist at a large children’s hospital in California, had a sense that the nation’s coronavirus testing mess was finally getting under control. She could send tests to a lab at Stanford University Medical Center and get the results within a day. When backlogs grew at Stanford, Dr. Cham starting sending tests to Quest Diagnostics, a major laboratory company that has been ramping up its testing capacity. But the turnaround for results could be 13 days, she said, so her hospital switched to the University of California, San Francisco, for a two-to-three day wait. (Kaplan and Thomas, 4/6)

CNN: Coroners Worry Covid-19 Test Shortages Could Lead To Uncounted Deaths 
Jill Romann, the coroner in Douglas County, Colorado, was so desperate for coronavirus tests that she began calling hospitals in the middle of the night to avoid management, begging whoever was on duty for one or two test kits. Her total collection reached about 13 before the hospitals caught on and shut her down. She asked the state health department for help getting the tests needed to determine whether deaths were linked to the virus. But she said the agency told her it was not providing them to coroners because it was prioritizing the tests for the living. (Ellis, Hicken and Fantz, 4/6)

Modern Healthcare: Public Health Agencies Get $186 Million To Test, Track COVID-19
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will provide state and local public health departments with $186 million in funding to help track and test for COVID-19, HHS said on Monday. The CDC will use the funding to support ongoing efforts to address coronavirus "hot zones" and areas with a rapid increase in reported cases that could soon become hot zones. (Brady, 4/6)

ABC News: As The US Struggles With Lack Of Coronavirus Testing, Researchers Look To Our Sewage For Clues 
As the novel coronavirus continues to spread and devastate communities, the United States is still struggling to do enough testing to understand the true scale of the epidemic. Now, researchers around the country are looking for new tools to help track how the virus is spreading. Testing your sewage may be one way. (Anoruo, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Who Has Covid-19? What We Know About Tests And Treatment For The New Coronavirus
The U.S. stumbled in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, with testing limited by problems with a government-developed test and narrow testing criteria. Now dozens of options are emerging after the Food and Drug Administration opened the door for authorized companies and labs. We are updating this guide regularly with what we learn about the state of testing and treatment across the U.S. (Burton, 4/6)

Los Angeles Times: All L.A. Residents With Symptoms Can Get Coronavirus Tests, Garcetti Says
Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Monday evening that any Los Angeles County resident who has symptoms and wants to be tested for the coronavirus can now apply online. Testing was previously limited to vulnerable populations, including those 65 and older, and those with compromised immune systems. (Newberry and Cosgrove, 4/6)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Labs Throughout Wisconsin Could Significantly Increase COVID-19 Testing — If They Could Get The Needed Chemicals
UW Health has an automated instrument capable of processing about 1,200 COVID-19 tests a day, or roughly four times the number that its lab now typically does. The instrument has yet to be used for a single COVID-19 test. UW Health’s lab, like others throughout the state, has been unable to get the chemicals, or reagents, needed to process specimens on the instrument. “You need the reagent or you are kind of dead in the water,” said David Yang, medical director of UW Health Clinical Laboratories. (Boulton, 4/7)

Atlanta Journal- Constitution: Rapid Virus Tests Come To Atlanta As Testing Slowly Ramps Up
CVS Health on Monday opened a drive-through coronavirus testing center in Atlanta that the company said can provide results within minutes. A Sandy Springs laboratory that’s developed its own testing protocol, meanwhile, said it will have capacity to process thousands of samples per day for customers such as major health systems and rural hospitals. The announcements come as cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, climb and as Georgia continues to rank near the bottom nationally in testing on a per capita basis, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis shows. (Trubey, 4/6)

The Washington Post: Grocery Workers Are Beginning To Die Of Coronavirus
Major supermarket chains are beginning to report their first coronavirus-related employee deaths, leading to store closures and increasing anxiety among grocery workers as the pandemic intensifies across the country. A Trader Joe’s worker in Scarsdale, N.Y., a greeter at a Giant store in Largo, Md., and two Walmart employees from the same Chicago-area store have died of covid-19, the disease the novel coronavirus causes, in recent days, the companies confirmed Monday. (Bhattarai, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Hits Meat Plants As Some Workers Get Sick, Others Stay Home
The coronavirus pandemic is hitting U.S. meat operations, slowing and temporarily halting production at some plants as sickness and fear keep workers home. Meat plant employees, working by the hundreds in plants, with many standing side by side on processing lines, play a critical role in replenishing supermarkets. But workers’ concerns that they could contract the coronavirus have prompted walkouts and complaints, while a growing number of positive cases prompts some meat companies to scale back operations. (Bunge, 4/6)

The Associated Press: Online Grocery Services Struggle To Meet Spike In Demand
A pandemic forcing everyone to stay home could be the perfect moment for online grocery services. In practice, they’ve been struggling to keep up with a surge in orders, highlighting their limited ability to respond to an unprecedented onslaught of demand. After panic buying left store shelves stripped of staples like pasta, canned goods and toilet paper, many shoppers quickly found online grocery delivery slots almost impossible to come by, too. (Chan, 4/7)

Kaiser Health News: Inside Meals On Wheels’ Struggle To Keep Older Americans Fed During A Pandemic
In the best of times, Meals on Wheels faces the herculean task of delivering 200 million meals annually to 2.4 million hungry and isolated older Americans. But this is the time of the dreaded novel coronavirus. With the pandemic bearing down, I wanted to get inside Meals on Wheels to see how it would gear up its services. After all, 79% of its existing clients are 75 or older. There would be more demand now that many more seniors — including those who probably never imagined they’d be stuck inside — are advised it is safest to remain housebound. (Horovitz, 4/7)

Politico: For Jobless Americans, Obamacare Is Still A Potential Lifeline
Millions of Americans losing their jobs may still be able to sign up for Obamacare — but Trump officials haven’t been urging people to grab onto that safety net while they can. People who’ve lost their workplace health insurance during the coronavirus outbreak may qualify for private coverage through Obamacare, along with generous subsidies, despite President Donald Trump’s decision last week not to re-open signups for everyone. Many may also qualify for free or low-cost coverage under Medicaid, especially in the two-thirds of states that joined Obamacare’s expansion of the low-income health care program. (Luthi, 4/6)

Meanwhile, in Texas —

Houston Chronicle: Calls For Medicaid Expansion Renewed As COVID-19 Outbreak Strains Health Care System
More than 50 Texas health policy and industry groups are urging Gov. Greg Abbott to expand the state’s Medicaid program to cover more than 1 million people as a way to slow the spread of the coronavirus and the illness it causes, COVID-19. The federal law known as Obamacare allows states to extend eligibility for Medicaid, the government health insurance for the poor, to greater numbers of low-income families. Texas, which leads the nation in both the number and percentage of uninsured, has refused to do so even though the federal government will pay for nearly all of the additional costs. (Wu, 4/6)

Stat: ‘We’re Flying Blind’: African Americans May Be Bearing The Brunt Of Covid-19, But Access To Data Are Limited
Stark statistics are coming to light only now and only in piecemeal fashion showing that African Americans are disproportionately affected by Covid-19. The widening racial divide in who gets infected, who gets tested, and who dies from Covid-19 is emerging from the few cities and states whose data is public. (Cooney, 4/6)

Politico: ‘We Cannot Have A Colorblind Policy’: Lack Of Racial Data Obstructs Coronavirus Fight
The majority of states either aren’t actively ensuring collection or aren’t releasing full racial and ethnic data on those tested and treated for coronavirus. And without that data, two dozen health professionals and policymakers told POLITICO, it will be difficult to provide communities of color the resources to treat and recover from coronavirus — and to diagnose it in the first place. “We cannot have a colorblind policy,” said Stephen Thomas, director of the University of Maryland’s Center for Health Equity. “With a colorblind policy — ‘Hey, we're all in this together’ — we'll be left with an explosion of Covid-19 concentrated in racial and ethnic minority communities.” (Barron-Lopez, Otterbein and King, 4/6)

The New York Times: Black Americans Face Alarming Rates Of Coronavirus Infection In Some States
In Louisiana, one of the states most devastated by the coronavirus, about 70 percent of the people who have died are African-American, officials announced on Monday, though only a third of the state’s population is black. In the county around Milwaukee, where 27 percent of residents are black, nearly twice as many African-American residents tested positive for the virus as white people, figures released this week show. And in Chicago, where African-American residents make up a little less than a third of the population, more than half of those found to have the virus are black. (Oppel, Searcey and Eligon, 4/7)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Is Missing Racial Data For Many Coronavirus Deaths
As cities such as Chicago and Philadelphia report stark racial disparities in coronavirus patients and fatalities, Los Angeles County officials say they are scrambling to collect missing data on the race or ethnicity of local victims. The county’s public health director said Monday she was worried by reports from other states that suggested black patients were being infected and dying of COVID-19 in disproportionate numbers, but that missing data prevented her staff from determining if that was happening locally. (Barboza and Serna, 4/6)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Coronavirus Disparity In Louisiana: About 70% Of The Victims Are Black, But Why? 
Roughly 70% of the people who have died from coronavirus in Louisiana are black, a striking disparity for a state where African-Americans make up only 32% of the population that experts attributed to entrenched racial divides around economic opportunity and health care access. (Russell and Karlin, 4/6)

Detroit Free Press: Coronavirus Fight Must Include Impact On Minorities, Experts Say
The coronavirus is taking its starkest toll on African Americans in Michigan: They account for just 14% of the state's population but 33% of COVID-19 cases and 41% of deaths. The state was praised Monday for being one of the few that collects and reports data on the impact of the virus by race and ethnicity by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., that fights racial discrimination. (Dixon and Moran, 4/7)

The New York Times: U.S. Children With Coronavirus Are Less Hard Hit Than Adults, First Data Shows
Children make up a very small proportion of American coronavirus cases so far and are significantly less likely to become seriously ill than American adults, according to a preliminary report on the first wave of coronavirus cases in the United States. But some have become very sick, and at least three have died. The study, published Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also reported that children appear less likely than adults to develop any of the major known coronavirus symptoms: fever, cough or shortness of breath. That could suggest that many children have mild or undetected cases of the disease and could be spreading the virus to others in their families and communities. (Belluck, 4/6)

The Washington Post: U.S. Children Less Likely Than Adults To Get Very Ill From Coronavirus, CDC Study Suggests
The CDC said its findings seemed to support an earlier study on pediatric cases in China, which found that covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, might be less severe in children. The CDC researchers cautioned, however, that the information was incomplete and that severe cases have been reported among some people younger than 18, including three deaths that remain under investigation. (Shammas, 4/6)

CNN: Most Cases Of Coronavirus In Children Are Mild But Severe Cases Have Been Reported, CDC Says 
Cases in children make up less than 2% of reported cases in the US, according to the research published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The report analyzed 149,760 laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US occurring between February 12 and April 2. (Yu and Silverman, 4/7)

CNN: Pregnant Women With Coronavirus Don't Experience More Severe Illness Than Others As They Do With SARS And Flu, Study Says
A majority of pregnant women who are diagnosed with coronavirus don't experience more severe illness than the general population, according to a new study. They also don't seem to pass the infection on to their babies. A study of 43 pregnant women diagnosed with the virus in New York was published Monday in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. (Silverman and Christensen, 4/7)

GMA: Baby Dies After Mom With COVID-19 Goes Into Premature Labor: What We Know About How Susceptible Infants Are And How They’re Treated
A newborn baby in Louisiana has died in after being born premature to a COVID-19 positive mother. The death is believed to be the first of its kind in the state, according to a local health official. The baby's mother, who was not identified, was admitted to a Baton Rouge hospital and tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. The woman was placed on a ventilator and then went into premature labor, according to East Baton Rouge Parish coroner Beau Clark, M.D. (Kindelan, 4/6)

The Washington Post: The Dark Side Of Ventilators: Those Hooked Up For Long Periods Face Difficult Recoveries
For people desperately ill with covid-19, getting hooked up to a mechanical ventilator can mean the difference between life and death. But despite officials’ frantic efforts to secure more of the machines, they are not a magic bullet. Many attached to the scarce machines will not make it out of the hospital. Data from China, Italy and the U.S. suggest that about half of those with covid-19 who receive ventilator support will die. (Johnson and Cha, 4/6)

Kaiser Health News: After COVID-19: Doctors Ponder Best Advice As Patients Recover From Coronavirus
When David Vega fell ill with the novel coronavirus in mid-March, fever, chills and nausea left the 27-year-old Indiana medical student curled up in bed for days. After a test confirmed he had COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, his doctor advised Vega to isolate himself at home for an additional week. The week passed, and Vega improved. His doctor cleared him to get back to his regular routines without additional testing after he had gone three days without symptoms. (Heredia Rodriguez, 4/6)

Los Angeles Times: Antibodies From Coronavirus Survivors May Help Current Patients
For 10 patients severely ill with the new coronavirus, a single dose of antibodies drawn from the blood of people who had recovered from COVID-19 appeared to save lives, shorten the duration of symptoms, improve oxygen levels and speed up viral clearance, newly published research reports. The preliminary findings emerged from a “pilot study” published Monday in the journal PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. Conducted at three hospitals in China, it promised only to suggest the benefits of harvesting immune antibodies from recovered people (also called convalescent plasma) and administering it to people battling a severe case of COVID-19. (Healy, 4/6)

ABC News: Calls To US Helpline Jump 891%, As White House Is Warned Of Mental Health Crisis 
The national hotline providing emergency help to people suffering from emotional distress has received nearly nine times more calls than it did this time last year, with tens of thousands of Americans reaching out for assistance amid the coronavirus crisis, according to U.S. officials. Federal officials on the front lines of the U.S. government’s pandemic response have privately warned members of the White House and Department of Homeland Security that many more Americans will find themselves in “dire straits” over the coming weeks, and that U.S. agencies have yet to properly prepare for the unfolding “mental health crisis.” (Levine, 4/7)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Coronavirus In Milwaukee: Calls To 211 Helpline Double During Pandemic
As the state has ratcheted up social distancing and stay-at-home rules, 211 has seen a significant increase in calls. According to Impact Inc. President and CEO John Hyatt, the average number of calls has doubled from 500 to 1,000 a day. The call center is part of a group of other 211s that cover nine counties in southeastern Wisconsin (Washington and Ozaukee, Waukesha and Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Jefferson Dodge and Walworth) 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (Shelbourne, 4/6)

The New York Times: Where Have All The Heart Attacks Gone?
The hospitals are eerily quiet, except for Covid-19. I have heard this sentiment from fellow doctors across the United States and in many other countries. We are all asking: Where are all the patients with heart attacks and stroke? They are missing from our hospitals. Yale New Haven Hospital, where I work, has almost 300 people stricken with Covid-19, and the numbers keep rising — and yet we are not yet at capacity because of a marked decline in our usual types of patients. In more normal times, we never have so many empty beds. (Krumholz, 4/6)

The New York Times: At 89, She Fears Dying Alone More Than The Coronavirus Itself
Shatzi Weisberger recognized the symptoms of a heart attack. Her chest seized up and pain shot down her left arm. Ms. Weisberger, 89, a retired nurse, did not want to die alone in her apartment. But if she went to the hospital, she was afraid that she would get the coronavirus there and die among strangers, cut off from the people she cared about. “I know I’m vulnerable because I’m almost 90,” she said. “I would not go to the hospital under any circumstances.” (Leland, 4/7)

CNN: Even With A Pandemic, Many Older Americans Are Carrying On As Usual
Last week, a 99-year-old New Jersey man who went to an engagement party was arrested in New Jersey for defying the state's ban on gatherings. In a separate case, a 100-year-old man violated a stay-at-home order by attending a funeral... For a group that's considered very high risk for contracting coronavirus, they're carrying on life as usual -- much to the worry of their grown children. Talk to a few of them and they'll tell you there are several reasons why. (Valdes, 4/6)

Stat: Social Distancing Can Test If Technology Could Solve The Loneliness Epidemic
As the coronavirus spreads exponentially across the United States, widespread social distancing is thought to be our best weapon against rampant transmission. Minimizing human contact can slow the rate of spread — flattening the curve — and avoid a surge of sick patients that would strain our health care system to a point where it cannot effectively care for them... The conundrum is that these mandates — prudent and necessary as they are — are overlaid against the backdrop of an epidemic of loneliness in the U.S. (Van Groningen, 4/7)

CNN: How Did Coronavirus Break Out? Theories Abound As Researchers Race To Solve Genetic Detective Story 
Coronavirus ravaging the world has provided fertile ground for all manner of theories -- from the fantastic, to the dubious to the believable... Scientists have banded together across international borders to condemn the nationalist-tinged conspiracy theories. And yet, they are divided on what was once widely thought the most likely culprit: a so-called wet market in Wuhan, where wild animals are kept in cages and sold as pets or food. (Kuznia and Griffin, 4/6)

The New York Times: How Coronavirus Attacks The Body
It doesn’t take long for mild coronavirus symptoms to turn serious. These virtual reality images show how the virus can invade the lungs and kill. (Kessel and Byrd, 4/6)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: After Coronavirus, A Surge In Foster Care Placements Will Come
Sad to say but COVID-19 isn’t leaving any of us or our institutions untouched, and so today, I want to share with you the impact the virus is having on the foster care system. With schools shuttered and mandated reporters like teachers, day care workers, coaches, and Scout leaders no longer able to monitor children’s well-being, it’s anyone’s guess how children are faring. But if history is any indication, child welfare workers say that any drop in referrals is a good indicator of what’s to come. (Staples, 4/6)

Kaiser Health News: Cancer Patients Face Treatment Delays And Uncertainty As Coronavirus Cripples Hospitals
The federal government has encouraged health centers to delay nonessential surgeries while weighing the severity of patients’ conditions and the availability of personal protective equipment, beds and staffing at hospitals. People with cancer are among those at high risk of complications if infected with the new coronavirus. It’s estimated 1.8 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. this year. More than 600,000 people are receiving chemotherapy. (Stone, 4/7)

Politico: Coronavirus Clampdown: The Virus Casts A Shroud Over American Civic Life
States and cities across the country are cutting off access to open records and canceling in-person meetings, starving the public — not to mention lobbyists and other influence-brokers — of information as the coronavirus outbreak reaches into all corners of civic life. The public access shutdown comes just as local officials make unprecedented decisions about health care and how to disburse billions of dollars in federal aid. And it could undermine years of hard-won victories on access to information, some transparency advocates say, with now-temporary restrictions enduring even after this crisis has receded. (White, 4/7)

Kaiser Health News: Dispatch From A Country Doctor: Seeing Patients Differently In The Time Of Coronavirus
Patients would often stop by River Bend Family Medicine just to gab with staff at the front desk or bring baked goods to Dr. Matt Hahn. “I’m a simple country doctor,” said Hahn, who has practiced in Hancock, Maryland, for 20 years ― the past decade at his River Bend office. “Our waiting room is like a social network in and of itself.” Hahn is also a candidate for West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District though he has backed away from campaigning because of the coronavirus threat. (Appleby, 4/7)

WBUR: For Non-English Speakers, Difficult Language Barriers Become Dire Amid Outbreak 
Petrona worked as a housekeeper until the state ordered the closure of all non-essential businesses to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Now the single mother of two young children with only a few dollars in savings and unable to qualify for unemployment because of her legal status, her main source of information is what she sees on her phone. (Rios, 4/7)

The Associated Press: Lives Lost: A Mismatched Pair's Love Story Ends With Virus
He was a by-the-book, buttoned-up conservative whose opinions could be quick and blunt. She was a free-thinking, authority-snubbing liberal who would draw stories out in meandering conversation. In the pain of broken marriages, Edward Porco and Joan Powers found new life in each other, however mismatched they might seem. And as the coronavirus pandemic consumed the world, they both fell victim to it. (Sedensky, 4/7)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Studies Focus On Whether Sentinel Surveillance, School Closings Work
Public health officials can use rapid sentinel surveillance to measure the spread of COVID-19 in their communities and guide appropriate strategies to limit it, according to a study published late last week in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Also, a study published the same day in The Lancet Public Health suggests that healthcare worker absenteeism due to school closures during a pandemic could lead to more deaths than they prevent. (Van Beusekom, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: History In The Moment: Museums Begin Chronicling Coronavirus Pandemic
New York City could be facing its most challenging week to date during the coronavirus pandemic. But for Louise Mirrer, president and chief executive officer of the New-York Historical Society, there is no point in waiting until the worst passes before thinking about documenting the moment in time. Ms. Mirrer is leading her team of roughly 360 employees to gather what they can that tells the story of the novel coronavirus’ spread and how it put the city at a standstill. Items the society is seeking range from signs in shop windows to do-it-yourself face masks. (Passy, 4/6)

The New York Times: With Coronavirus Symptoms, Boris Johnson Is Moved To Intensive Care In Hospital
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved into intensive care on Monday, a worrisome turn in his 10-day battle with the coronavirus and the starkest evidence yet of how the virus has threatened the British political establishment and thrown its new government into upheaval. The government said the decision was a precaution and that he had been in good spirits earlier in the day. But with Mr. Johnson’s aides releasing few details about his condition, the nation kept a tense vigil on Monday night, hoping for the best and experiencing, together, the frightening mysteries of this disease. (Castle and Landler, 4/6)

The Associated Press: Virus Puts UK PM In Intensive Care; Hopes Rise In US, Europe
The 55-year-old Johnson, the world’s first known head of government to fall ill with the virus, was conscious and needed oxygen overnight but not a ventilator, Cabinet minister Michael Gove said Tuesday. Britain’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has been designated to take over should Johnson become incapacitated by an illness that can be debilitating even for those with access to the world’s best medical care. (Hinnant and Kirka, 4/7)

Reuters: UK PM Johnson In Intensive Care, Needed Oxygen After COVID-19 Symptoms Worsened
While Britain has no formal succession plan should a prime minister become incapacitated, Johnson had asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputise for him “where necessary,” Downing Street said. Raab entered Downing Street on Tuesday to chair the government’s COVID-19 emergency response meeting. (Faulconbridge, Piper and Holton, 4/6)

Reuters: A City Traumatized: Lockdown Easing, Wuhan Residents Fret Over Future
Li Xiaoli has been hard at work in recent days at the car dealership she owns in Wuhan, making sure she has enough sanitizer and protective gear for the company’s long-awaited reopening. The 49-year-old’s home city will on Wednesday finally start to lift a lockdown that has trapped millions for more than two months after the Chinese industrial powerhouse became the epicentre of a global coronavirus pandemic. (Goh, 4/7)

The New York Times: Spain’s Coronavirus Crisis Accelerated As Warnings Went Unheeded
At the end of January, a German tourist became Spain’s first coronavirus patient. At the time, the health threat seemed for the nation as remote as the tiny Spanish island of La Gomera, where he was treated. Two weeks later, the German walked out of hospital, and Spain celebrated being again “virus free.” It proved a very brief respite. But even as more cases surfaced, Spanish officials continued to stress that the coronavirus was being imported, notably onto another island by tourists from Italy, where hospitals were already under siege. The story line was that Spain faced an external threat, but did not risk a domestic epidemic. (Minder, 4/7)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Plans Will Get A 1.66% Pay Bump For 2021
The CMS Monday finalized a 1.66% pay bump for Medicare Advantage plans, lower than last year's 2.53% pay raise. The agency is also finalizing several changes to how it pays Medicare Advantage and Part D plans, as well as Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, or PACE. In February, the CMS proposed a 0.93% increase in payments for Medicare Advantage plans that met stiff industry opposition. (Brady, 4/6)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Benefit From Partnering With Local Agencies For Older Adults
When mental health providers and hospitals partner with local agencies focused on helping older adults stay independent, Medicare spending decreases and nursing home use falls, according to a new study in Health Affairs. The study is the first of its kind to evaluate the impact of provider partnerships with Area Agencies on Aging, which are longstanding publicly or privately operated centers located in counties across the country that offer services to help older adults remain independent such as providing meals, in-home support and transportation. The agencies are partially funded by the federal government. (Castellucci, 4/6)

Modern Healthcare: Social Safety Net Integral To Good Health, Researchers Find
Priority placement in affordable housing coupled with case management, financial and legal services for families that combat chronic diseases and housing instability significantly improved both physical and mental health compared with families that received the standard resource guides and hospital-based social work. The holistic model reduced the share of children with fair or poor health by 32 percentage points over six months and average scores for anxiety and depression among adult family members declined by 1.38 and 1.04 points, respectively, according to a new study from a group of Boston researchers published in Health Affairs. (Kacik, 4/6)

Modern Healthcare: Social Workers Lower Patient Healthcare Use, Study Shows
Increasing patient access to social workers within primary care could lower hospitalizations and emergency department visits for higher-risk patients, according to a new study. Researchers found hiring social workers to work in underrepresented areas increased patient social work encounters by 33% over the study period. Those encounters were associated with a 4.4% decrease in hospitalizations among 43,000 high-risk patients, and a 3% reduction in emergency department visits. The findings were published Monday in Health Affairs. (Johnson, 4/6)

And in other news from the health industry —

Modern Healthcare: Employer Group Purchasing Of Healthcare Attracting Interest
Jennifer Fairman, benefits manager of Larimer County, Colo., discovered last spring that her self-insured county’s health plan was paying UCHealth’s Poudre Valley Hospital more than 400% of Medicare rates for inpatient and outpatient services. A RAND Corp. study of hospital prices across the country also showed the county was paying Banner Fort Collins Medical Center, the other hospital in Fort Collins, 330% of Medicare rates. But most county employees were using the pricier UCHealth facility because they assumed the quality of care was better. (Meyer, 4/4)

The Washington Post: Court Orders Maryland Company To Restore $28 Million To Employee Benefit Plans
A federal judge in Maryland has ordered a Bethesda-based company to restore more than $28 million to health benefit plans it sold to more than 100 employers. Brendan Turner and Susanne Sheil, former executives of the now defunct WH Administrators, failed to pay millions in medical expenses for plan participants and denied legitimate claims from plan holders, according to the court order. (Marimow, 4/6)

Stat: The U.S. Gets A D- In The Coronavirus Fight. It’s Fixable
What’s missing is an appreciation of the value of data, and humanity’s mastery of it, as the one weapon we have against an out-of-control virus. The desire to ignore the epidemic and the one to embrace would-be treatments before they’re proven boils down to the same thing: the desire to believe that you can force the world into being fixed without understanding it first. There is no debate that medicines are needed, but we need to make sure we find the right ones. (Matthew Herper, 4/7)

The Washington Post: Hydroxychloroquine Explains Why Trump Should Not Be President
“What do I know? I’m not a doctor.” It’s rare that President Trump speaks with even that level of clarity. Unfortunately, this observation came Sunday amid an avalanche of nonsense about the anti-malaria drug that he believes to be a magic bullet against covid-19. It is remarkable how a tongue-twisting word few of us were familiar with a month ago — hydroxychloroquine — has suddenly come to represent so many of the reasons Trump should not be president, especially during a time of crisis. (Eugene Robinson, 4/6)

The Washington Post: What An Infectious Disease Specialist Learned About The Virus — From Getting It 
Nearly a month ago, on March 12, I was taking the train from Boston to New York City where I was meeting my son, Harry, a physician in Manhattan, for a long drive back to Alabama. On the train, I wrote an op-ed for the Birmingham News warning that the coronavirus was coming to our region and that we were not ready. The piece was published the next day. When we pulled into our driveway in Birmingham that evening, Harry spiked a fever. We looked at each other and, as physicians, knew what this likely meant: covid-19. By Saturday afternoon, I, too, developed symptoms. (Michael S. Saag, 4/6)

CNN: The Coronavirus Blame Game: It's Not Just Trump
In our polarized world, we are united by one truth: Covid-19 has no political objective, no media bias, and no social agenda. It is an equal opportunity killer. People are dying in isolation, working alone in their basement, and sobbing on empty street corners normally full of life. As we long for the "ordinary" in the midst of these extraordinary times, the reality is that while we are united, we are still divided. (Alice Stewart, 4/6)

Bloomberg: It’s Still Hard To Predict Who Will Die From Covid-19
In every epidemic, some die, others become ill and recover, and the luckiest live through infection without symptoms. In today’s pandemic, we are seeing this play out before our eyes. Although the initial epidemiological data show that Covid-19 is more severe in older people, men and those with pre-existing conditions such as heart and lung disease, not everyone with severe disease has these risk factors. And not everyone at risk has the same symptoms, prognosis or outcome. ( Arturo Casadevall and Liise-anne Pirofski, 4/6)

The Hill: Antibody Testing Can Help Open The Economy And Get Us Working Again
President Trump has to balance the intensely-competing demands of public health and economic well-being while battling the coronavirus pandemic. Antibody tests could prove to be the secret weapon that lets us win the war against this invisible enemy. The administration’s “response” to the coronavirus pandemic involves several interlocking responsibilities, and we’re still a ways away from putting this crisis behind us. But an effective antibody test could significantly accelerate the timetable for returning to normalcy. (Madison Gesiotto, 4/6)

The New York Times: To Fight Coronavirus, There’s No Substitute For U.S. Leadership
Close to 370,000 infections and nearly 11,000 deaths in the United States. Nearly 10 million Americans filing unemployment claims. Unimaginable heartbreak and hardship, with worse to come. Given this still-developing emergency, and the fatal inadequacy of the U.S. government’s domestic preparedness and response so far, it is very hard to focus on the devastation that is about to strike the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. But if President Trump doesn’t overcome his go-it-alone mind-set and take immediate steps to mobilize a global coalition to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, its spread will cause a catastrophic loss of life and make it impossible to restore normalcy in the United States in the foreseeable future. (Samantha Power, 4/7)

Axios: Americans Want The Federal Government, Not States, In Charge On Coronavirus
President Trump has repeatedly said that he sees the federal government’s role as “backup” to the states on the response to coronavirus. But Americans want the federal government — not states — to take the lead, according to our latest KFF tracking poll. Why it matters: States have so far been the ones issuing specific directives about social distancing, and are also trying to source health care supplies. By the numbers: 60% of the people we surveyed said the federal government should be primarily responsible for the coronavirus response, almost double the 32% who say their own state should be primarily responsible. (Drew Altman, 4/7)

Politico: We’ll Need Vote-By-Mail In November. And It Could Be A Legal Nightmare.
States are suddenly scrambling to expand vote-by-mail for this year’s election. Exhibit A is Wisconsin, which for this week’s primary election has received more than 1 million absentee ballot requests, quadruple the state’s 2016 numbers, a previous high. The move to vote-by-mail, by and large, is a positive development, given that the Covid-19 threat will remain or return as a menace in November, and in-person voting could pose serious health risks for voters and poll workers alike. But while absentee ballots can help keep people safe and expand voting access, they come with a drawback: a greater chance of litigation. Simply put, there are more things that can go wrong with vote-by-mail compared with in-precinct voting. (Edward B. Foley, 4/7)

The New York Times: Lockdown Can’t Last Forever. Here’s How To Lift It.
Lockdowns, quarantines and extreme forms of physical distancing work: They are curbing the spread of Covid-19. But they cannot last indefinitely, at least not without causing enormous damage to economies and compromising peoples’ good will and emotional well-being. When governments decide to close schools (or not), for example, they are implicitly trying to balance these various interests. One major problem, though: Their calculus about the underlying trade-offs typically is unclear, and the criteria for their policy adjustments are unknown. (Gabriel Leung, 4/6)

The Washington Post: Wait! Before You Take Me Off The Ventilator...
In my recurring nightmare, I’m in bed in a hospital corridor in Fort Lauderdale. The corridor is so wide that beds can fit side by side in it, and so long that the beds stretch as far as I can see in both directions. Of course, my vision is obscured somewhat by my oxygen mask. I’m breathing through a tube attached to a ventilator that I’m sharing with a strapping young man whose lifelong tan can still be detected beneath his current pallor; he looks as though he’s never been sick a day in his life till now. I feel woozy but not too bad, actually. In fact, I’m pretty confident I can lick this thing. (Joanne Gruber, 4/6)

Politico: We Can Do More To Protect Workers Fighting Covid-19
This year, a new crisis has put a much bigger swath of the workforce—far more Americans, in many industries—unexpectedly in harm’s way. Millions of American workers are literally risking their lives every day on the job, saving desperately ill patients, ensuring food and medicine get to our stores and homes, and keeping the public safe. Every day there are reports of physicians, nurses, police and emergency responders, even bus drivers, who have died from Covid-19 after their employers failed to implement appropriate infection control measures or provide the adequate respiratory protection or sanitary facilities needed to prevent exposure in the course of their work. Yet OSHA, the federal agency under the Department of Labor charged with protecting these workers, is almost completely missing from the federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic. (David Michaels, 4/7)

The Washington Post: New York Applause For Hospital Workers: A Vast Audience Rooting For Heroes
Ovations are on pause in the theaters and concert halls and stadiums of this city. But they haven't ceased. They've just moved into the streets. Like clockwork, they happen, every evening at 7. Up and down Manhattan — and probably the Bronx and Staten Island, too — cheers ring out from apartment towers and brownstones, along with the sounds of rhythmic chants, applause and whistles. (Peter Marks, 4/6)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Has Made All Doctors Covid-19 Doctors
We are America’s doctors, and we have been redeployed. Yesterday we were your pediatricians. Your cardiologists. Your surgeons. Today, we are all Covid-19 doctors. Your appointments are canceled, and our offices are closed. We’ve been called to the front lines. This is a global war, and we are the soldiers. The world is united against a common enemy — invisible, but deadly. (Hadi Halazun, 4/6)

Los Angeles Times: Giuliani Advising Trump On Coronavirus, Hydroxychloroquine
With the COVID-19 pandemic intensifying and the economy cratering, can the United States survive another injection of Rudy Giuliani? It looks like we’re about to find out. The Washington Post reports that the former mayor of New York City is taking time off from his relentless pursuit of Hunter Biden and the Ukrainian hiding spot of the Democratic National Committee’s email server to become a medical researcher for President Trump. (Jon Healy, 4/6)

Stat: Misinformation About An Outbreak Is Important Public Health Data
The spread of information — and misinformation — has been playing a crucial role throughout the unfolding coronavirus outbreak and should serve as a wake-up call for scientists who model epidemics. With every outbreak of a new pathogen comes a race to estimate its transmissibility, which scientists, the media, and the public use to compare the new threat to known enemies. What this approach fails to capture is the extent to which disease epidemics are shaped by unique interactions between biological and social factors — and that social communication and behaviors during an outbreak are just as important to public health as tests and diagnoses. (Laurent Hebert-Dufresne and Vicky Chuqiao Yang, 4/7)

Center For Infectious Disease Research And Policy: Respirators Can Be Reused, But Decontamination Not Well Studied
Perhaps lost in the recent debate and federal recommendations on cloth masks for the general public has been the key issue of protecting those putting their lives on the line daily: hard-working healthcare workers as hospitals face limited supplies of N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) during this pandemic. Key to such protection are issues surrounding respirator reuse and decontamination to optimize use of FFRs, which are personal protective devices constructed largely from filter material worn on the face that prevent inhalation of viral aerosols by the wearer. (Lisa M Brosseau and Margaret Sietsema, 4/6)

The New York Times: Who Goes Alt-Right In A Coronavirus Quarantine?
The outside world is closing its doors, and the internet, as a result, is feeling the pressure. The mobile network Vodafone reported a 50 percent surge in internet use last month, and all over the world internet companies are being forced to deal with the extra demand generated by self-isolation. Much of the world is, for an undetermined period, going permanently online. Beyond the much more immediate and pressing threat of the virus, there is something disconcerting about this for anyone who studies radicalization and the internet. (Annie Kelly, 4/7)

The Hill: How I Feel About Returning To The Medical Front Lines
Many health care workers across New York City are being contacted right now in the fight against COVID-19. Extended faculty are considering returning to the medical wards, and I am one of them. Several things have crossed my mind — not fear, nor honor, but more practical questions: Would being middle-aged put me at risk of a serious complication? Would I catch the virus? (Dr. Marc Siegel, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Congress’s Small-Business Ventilator
Congress created a $350 billion lending facility in last month’s $2.2 trillion relief bill for small businesses gasping for liquidity amid coronavirus shutdowns. But its rushed relief has unsurprisingly resulted in confusion, leaving the Trump Administration to mop up the mess. In a normal year the Small Business Administration makes about 60,000 loans totalling $30 billion. Congress last month vastly increased its workload by making the agency responsible for shovelling out $350 billion in loans to millions of small businesses in days or weeks. (4/6)

The New York Times: Social Distancing During The Coronavirus Pandemic Is A Privilege
People like to say that the coronavirus is no respecter of race, class or country, that the disease Covid-19 is mindless and will infect anybody it can. In theory, that is true. But, in practice, in the real world, this virus behaves like others, screeching like a heat-seeking missile toward the most vulnerable in society. And this happens not because it prefers them, but because they are more exposed, more fragile and more ill. (Charles M. Blow, 4/5)

Bloomberg: How To Keep Coronavirus Recession From Becoming A Depression
The U.S unemployment report for March foreshadowed the ugly numbers to come as the economy’s sudden stop sidelines entire sectors. The prospect of double-digit unemployment rates raises the possibility that what is now the “Great Suppression” will become the next Great Depression. This raises an important question for market participants: What separates a depression from a recession? A starting place is to consider the three “Ds” of a depression: Depth, duration, and deflation. (Tim Duy, 4/6)

The Hill: COVID-19 Makes It Clear: Medicaid Block Grants Will Make Everyone Worse Off
COVID-19, the novel coronavirus that has spread to a global pandemic, demonstrates why block grants are irresponsible and hurt the most vulnerable. ... Under the waiver the Trump administration has proposed, in exchange for a set dollar contribution, states would have additional flexibility to decide eligibility and benefits. In theory, it would spur innovation and reduce spending for both the federal government and the states. It is misguided, however. In reality, the only way states reduce the cost of the program is to cut enrollees, benefits, or providers already low reimbursement rates. (Arielle Kane, 4/4)

Los Angeles Times: Amid Coronavirus, Trump’s ‘America First’ Policy Ineffective
It was obvious even before Donald Trump became president that he disdained cooperation with other nations, including traditional allies, and that he had little interest in shoring up international institutions that the United States helped to create. As president, he has made good — or rather, bad — on his campaign promise to put “America First,” which in practice has often meant “America alone.” He has undermined U.S. influence at the United Nations, questioned the foundations of NATO and made this country less secure as well as less influential by repudiating international agreements. (4/6)

The Washington Post: Five Ways To Conquer Your Covid-19 Fears
Last week in San Diego, a doctor friend of mine saw 24 patients from different walks of life. Just less than half were struggling with anxiety, which is understandable, given the circus tent of worry we’re all waking up inside of every day. Another 40 percent were exhibiting more mysterious symptoms. Some had strange rashes on their face. Others had eye and throat irritations or a tightness in their chest that they couldn’t explain. Could it be, they wanted to know, the novel coronavirus? (Amanda Ripley, 4/6)